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The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., March 8, 1956, page 2

DEBT, DEATH AND MARRIAGES KEPT EARLY SETTLERS IN LEGAL DITHER

From February 2, 1893 when President Benjamin Harrison granted widow Elicy F. Lowell title to her homestead seven miles southwest of Glenwood, the place needed a Philadelphia lawyer.
The land, now owned by Willy and Otto and Gail Gribner was in constant litigation. Judging by the abstract, all profits went for lawyer fees.
Widow Lowell gave up the struggle for $1200 in 1893 when she sold her 160 acres to A.B.J Lowell of Fulda. Lowell promptly leased 80 acres and 14 head of cows for a $160 a year on these conditions:
That the tenant, Jacob W. Wilken agreed "to feed all hay raised on the place, spread the manure on the fields, keep up the fences and house, and to make good all of the old cows with cows having good sound TITTS." (That old English spelling was standard until the year 1100).

ABSTRACT GROWS

Jacob bought the place in 1902 for $1,000 and died in 1919. He defined his estate as anything he had "seized" during his married life and willed it to his widow Christina, four brothers and sisters Sophie.
T. T. Hinshaw, C. L. Colburn and C. H. Estes appraised of the land at $3,5000 and Jacob's personal property at $494.80. Under the circumstances it is no wonder that Christina wasted no time getting another husband, August G. Anderson of Boise.
This really complicated the title. The homestead acquired a new owner and a $600 mortgage bearing eight percent interest and payable within 90 days.
Then came the Webbers - Harley, A.H. and their widowed sister, Rose G. Cole. They passed the farm back and forth like a hot potato. Eventually death threw the complicated title into probate court where 19 heirs scattered all over the U.S. came in for a share. Finally the land was sold at Sheriff's auction to Howard and Amy Patton.
The Gribner's leased from them in 1931. Several years later and they bought it.

FROM PRUSSIA

Willy came to Glenwood from Germany in 1930 to join his brother Gus who came to the U.S. seven years before. That Gribner boys grew up on a few little East Prussian farm now in the Russian Zone.
"We raised a little of everything - a little grain, a little hay and a few cows, mostly for our own use," Willy says. "Most of our neighbors were just like us. Just getting by. There were few big farms. These were all the by Prussia's famous generals."
On June 3, 1937 in Vancouver, Willy married Miss Gail Grubb, daughter of Wayne and Marie Grubb, White Salmon. Gail has lived in west Klickitat County (Appleton, Snowden, Glenwood) all her life.
They have three children. Frank, 21, works for Phelps Construction company at Eugene, Ore., Mary, 7, and Lee, 15, still are at home. Mary's engagement to Bert Endenholm of Yakima is announced in this issue.

GRADE -A DAIRY

The Gribner's Grade-A dairy ranch milks 26 cows, mostly Guernseys. Everything is up-to-date. Breeding is done by artificial insemination Electricity does the milking, except when the power is off as it was last Sunday.
"When this happens everyone including the cook turns to with both hands in a bucket," Gail says.
Willy has 20 acres of alfalfa under sprinkler irrigation. Most of the rest of his land is in hay and pasture. He raises his own hay and buys grain.
Feed production is stepped up with liberal applications of super phosphate and some nitrogen. There's plenty of grass, alfalfa and clover in spite of wild geese which descend in droves every spring.
Last year the Game Department issued Willy and six of his frantic neighbors permits to frighten the geese with guns.
"It works as long as you keep shooting but they will circle right back," Willie says.

PLENTY OF PROBLEMS

Dairymen have plenty of problems. Milk prices have rallied a little since last summer's bad slump. He gets less of for the milk which still retails as high as ever. Willy attributes part of this to greatly increased costs of handling in which farmers don't share.
One weed, wild parsnip, or water hemlock, keeps Willy on pins and needles. As Socrates found out, it's a deadly poison. New plants seeded from the drainage ditch keep popping up. Willie pulls them on sight.
There are no vacations on a dairy farm. Cows have to be juiced twice a day. The Oregon Co-op trucks pick up milk and cream daily during the summer and every other day in winter - and there's been plenty of winter this year; 187 inches of snow in Glenwood as of March 2.
Besides the Oregon Co-Op Willy belongs to Glenwood Grange 94 and the Evergreen Breeders Assn.
Whenever Willy and Gail have a chance to get their noses off the grindstone, they like to do the same things. Hunt and fish.
"I'm worse than Willy," Gail say. "Sometimes I have to force him to come along."